Take responsibility today for good. (Photo: McBeth)
This is a series of posts about changing your world. How do you change your world? Easier DONE than said (challenge yourself to believe this phrase instead of the normal “easier said than done”).
–
About 99% of the people I have met in my life have taken less than 51% responsibility in their life. Meaning most of these people blamed something else for their good fortune or bad fortune.
Of the 1% I’ve met who decided to take 100% responsibility in their lives, they were usually ambitious and very enlightening to be around.
The reason is because this 1% decided every action in their lives determines their future and everything about themselves.
They are always moving forward attempting to be better than yesterday. I admired these people and decided to take the step for myself about 4 years ago.
There are many benefits for taking 100% responsibility, while there are also costs.
Pros:
- You are the master of your universe.
- Your success is determined by your actions.
- You decide your luck.
- All the good things in your life are your fault.
Cons:
- You are the slave of your universe.
- Your failure is determined by your actions.
- You decide your luck.
- All the bad things in your life are your fault.
This isn’t the whole list, I’m sure you get the picture. When you take 100% responsibility, you have no one to blame except yourself for everything. Good blame or bad blame.
Take Responsibility for EVERYTHING.
It will empower us to “awaken” our subconscious. To take 100% responsibility is to NEVER blame an external matter for any situation which happens to us. Our subconscious mind is very power. Whatever we feed it, it will return back to us. If we send positive affirmations, our subconscious will make these positive affirmations true.
An example, if we tell ourselves we’re handsome or beautiful, we believe this and become this. We will naturally send out this vibe of beauty to other people. If we tell ourselves we are ugly, we believe this and become this. We will naturally send out this vibe of beauty to other people. Think about how sometimes you can tell when someone is angry, this vibe gets sent out, and you feel it in somewhere in your body.
If we choose to take 100% responsibility with our conscious mind, we tell our subconscious mind we control our lives, and in return our subconscious does the impossible when we demand it. Our subconscious will find ways to make the impossible possible.
I believe it is OK to explain a chain of events, such as, a car crashed into me because he did not brake fast enough. In this situation we take responsibility for BEING there in the first place, if we were not there, they would have not crashed into us.
It takes while to master this, I’ve been practicing the mastery of responsibility for over 4 years now and it still takes me time to process my responsibility and to not blame anything else. I may not master my ability to take responsibility for decades; I will always work toward the mastery of myself.
Practice taking responsibility for everything in your life, from your health to your sex life to how your kids grow up. Take responsibility for the good things and the bad things.
The 4 Minute Mile
Have you heard of the “four minute barrier?” For many of years humans said it was impossible to run a mile under 4 minutes. People (including other athletes) just saw athletes run and said, “OK, if the world’s fastest man or woman can’t do it, no one can.” They choose seeing is believing, over believing is seeing. They said to themselves, if I don’t see it happen, it just is not possible. Such a limiting belief.
Along came Roger Bannister. He was inspired by watching other runners come back in races and set records. Roger Bannister believed he could run faster. So he did. Over an 8 year period of when he started and when he broke the record, he just kept going. Roger broke the record of a mile under 4 minutes in 3’59.4. He believed it, and he saw it happen.
Ever since he has broken the record, other athletes, some in the seeing is believing category and believing is seeing category, started breaking this record.
Since the record was broken in 1954 to present day, this record set by Roger Bannister has been reduced by 17 seconds.
Do you see the power of taking responsibility? Roger took responsibility for his speed, his training, his emotions, and he broke the record.
The Usual Excuses
Here are the usual arguments I receive about taking 100% responsibility.
“I can’ control what other people do to me, so why do I take responsibility for their actions?”
You are not actually taking responsibility for their actions. You are taking control of how YOU react to what they did. You are controlling your feelings, whether it is anger or happiness, you control your feelings.
You will take responsibility for being there when they took the action. Every little step before whatever the other person did to you, you made the decisions that lead up to it.
An example: You decide to go to college. You graduate with a degree and choose to work for a corporation. You stay there for 39 years before they fire you. You don’t get your retirement package.
Are you saying it’s the corporation’s responsibility for firing you? Didn’t all your decisions lead up to this event?
You empower yourself when you understand that you decide your own fate.
“It is not my fault I’m fat.”
Really? Whose fault is it?
Who are you blaming for your weight?
Your family history?
McDonald’s? Didn’t you choose to eat fast food?
You’re saying it’s their fault for advertising where you are? Did they hold a gun to your head?
Oh, so they didn’t force you to eat fast food, you just wanted to make yourself feel better and justifying behavior by blaming someone else?
Isn’t it because you ate too much fast food and food not good for you? Isn’t it because you don’t exercise?
Our worst enemy for taking responsibility is our logical mind. We’ll develop ways to justify why we’re right; in the back of our heads we KNOW we’re wrong. It just makes life seem easier to live this way.
Key word is SEEM easier. To me, life becomes more difficult when we don’t own up and take responsibility for our actions. The reason is because we pay for the consequences through our bad habits.
It is normal for most everyone around us to blame something else. That’s why 99% of everyone I meet blames most of their problems on something else.
The main reason to take responsibility for your actions and everything around you is simple.
You can decide to be better if you are comfortable or unhappy with your life. You decide to be better.
I can’t force you to make this choice. I want you to take responsibility. I don’t control you. I take responsibility for what I can do, which is writing about this for you.
There are many more arguments against taking responsibility; we’ll label these as excuses and not taking responsibility.
I took responsibility for my financial future when I quit my job during a recession. I decided I will determine how much I make, not my employer. I’m not telling you to quit, I’m telling you to decide your fate by taking responsibility.
On the next post in the series, we’ll talk about controlling the controllable.
What will you take responsibility for today?
Posted on February 18th 2010.
Related posts:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Within you lies, the power for good,use it.
Do you think so ?
Yep. I do think everyone has the capacity to be good and evil. Just depends on which side a person picks and how much of each side they pick.
Your thoughts on this matter is very deep. And I have been practicing what you have stated here. As what you’ve said, it will take a while to master this principle. I believe that we are the slaves of our mind and unless we become aware and regain control back into our lives, we will not escape the grudges of life.
We have to change our perception of seeing things. We are the ones who create our realities.
I definitely agree with you, we are the ones who create our realities. I was a slave of my mind, and I’ve been spending years to become the master. I’m glad you are coming along for the journey, keep me up to date with how you are doing!
Hey I totally agree with this post! Once you take responsibility for your life, everything just falls into place. It seems like it would be harder at first, but it is quite liberating. You begin learning from all of your experiences, and you find ways to improve your situation now that you realize that you are in control.
Colbycheeze´s last blog post ..The Top 10 Laws of Productivity and Effectiveness – #3: Clearly Define Your Objective